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MEMORIAL ADDRESS 


WILLIAM H. THOMAS 


Delivered at Montgomery, Ala,, April 26th, 1902, by 
Invitation of Ladies’ Memorial Association 


MONTGOMERY,ALABAMA 

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1902 



















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MEMORIAL ADDRESS 


BY 


WILLIAM H. THOMAS 

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Delivered ht Montgomery, Ala,, April 26th, 1902, by 
Invitation of Ladies’ Memorial Association 


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[“They do not die who in their deeds survive, enshrined forever in* 
the hearts of men.”—Confederate Monument, 1868.] 





1902 





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ORATION. 


The Orator of the day, was fittingly introduced by Hon, Wm, 
L, Martin the Chairman, and said* 


Mr. Chairman, Ladies of the Memorial Association, and Ladies 
and Gentlemen: 

It is with no ordinary pride, though with misgivings, that I 
come before this assemblage to cast another pebble at the base 
of memory’s monumental shaft. 

Presumptuous, it may seem, for one not having anxiously 
watched that war-cloud slowly gathering, wrapping in ob¬ 
scurity the political horizon of the North, to attempt a full 
expression of the sentiment of him who stood by principle in 
Death’s dark hour, or hope to gain the attentive ear of those 
who, though tearfully, contributed the heart’s choicest bless¬ 
ings- to that cause. 

Standing here in the “Cradle of the Confereracy,” where for 
many years the patriotic and eloquent of our State have ex¬ 
tolled the virtue and pictured the hardship of the Confederate 
soldier, I cannot expect to advance anything new, or speak 
of him and his cause more tenderly. And it is with reverent 
love, I shall repeat again the story that is told; not that you 
who knew and loved the dead soldier may know him better 
and love him in memory more dearly, but that the youth and 
young manhood, the maiden and young womanhood per¬ 
sonally knowing him not, may remember the principles for 
which he left his home, his kindred and loved ones, to fight 
and bleed and die. I shall be happy, indeed, if anything I 
may say should cause one boy or girl to study the 
South’s cause in the light of true history, that they may view 
the Confederate soldier as he was. 




SOUTH OE i860. 


Now gaze with me through memories retrospect, at the pan¬ 
orama of the South of i 860 . Behold a land spread out before 
you, her fields waving with the green corn of spring, making 
gladsome music to the rustle of the winds; with fields rolling 
as the seas, its spheres of golden grain bowing at the ap¬ 
proach of the gentle zephyrs; with fields clothed in a white¬ 
ness like that which greeted the famished gaze of the Israelish 
host when the Oriental wilderness was transformed into an 
Eden by sweet manna from Heaven. Yes, behold the South, 
decked as the Cereal Goddess, wreathed in smiles of peace 
and prosperity and singing the joyous psalms of local self- 
government. 

We were blessed with the wealth of a nation and a genial 
clime, and our people were fast entering the front ranks of 
mystical science, and elevating literature, art miraculous and 
genius divine. 

For half a century previous, our political horizon had con¬ 
tinued to grow clearer with a brighter light ’till no cloud re¬ 
mained; now its beauty was marred by clouds of Northern 
discontent which, being collected, grew black as death and 
not less fearfully ominous. 

THE STORM MUST COME. 

But the storm must come; and in 1861 the “electric spark 
leaped athwart our Southern skies,” and ere long the reverbera¬ 
tion of our Civil War was echoed around the world. Fort 
Sumter signals the onset—belching direful thunder, armed 
with winged lightning invokes all Christendom to witness a 
contest surpassed only by that of the overthrow of Milton’s 
warring Angels. Never before had the historian chronicled 
such a cruel and relentless strife in which the son was turned 
against the father, and brother against the brother. The poet’s 
harp was never tuned to sound so grand an epic; nor “clans¬ 
men met upon the field a foe more worthy of his steel.” 
Many a gallant Southern son attempting to withstand the onset 
of an enemy “thick as autumnal leaves,” poured out life in 
battle. Ask the winds that sigh and mourn continually through 
the graceful branches of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks, if not 
every hero that lay down beneath that shade to die, had not 
proved himself worthy the fervent prayers breathed for him 
in distant home. The many deeds of noble daring of those 
following the mighty Forrest, charging with the fearless 


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Stewart or led on to victory by the powerful Fitzhugh Lee, 
needs not, as the charge of the Light Brigade, a Tennyson to 
set in poetic or historic fame. Yes, there was 

“Cannon to right of them. 

Cannon to left of them, 

Cannon in front of them, 

. Volley’y and thundered; 

Stormed at with shot and shell 
Boldly they rode, and well. 

Into the jaws of Death, 

Into the mouth of Hell. 

****** * 

When can their glory fade? for 

All the world wondered 

And honored the fight they made,” 

Honored the chivalric spirit with which our 800,000 met 
the 2,858,000 of the foe on many a bloody field. 

THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER OF HISTORY. 

The heroic figure of the Confederate soldier, as presented 
to the world by the dispassionate historian, can but gain the 
admiration of his enemies. There may be those who differed 
from his politically, those who from self-interest or prejudice 
would deny him the laurel he hath so dearly won because 
thinking for himself, he opposed encroachment upon the con¬ 
stitutional guarantee of Local Self Government. “Yet even 
those doubting his cause can never doubt him.” Too well 
do they remember how, like a rushing torrent, he swept be¬ 
fore him their mighty army from off the plains of Manassas, 
and spread consternation throughout their capitol. Too well 
do they remember with what results they met at Winchester, 
Cross Keys, and Port Republic; and how that indomitable mili¬ 
tary genius, Stonewall Jackson, falling upon and taking 11,000 
prisoners at Harper’s Ferry, crossed the Potomac into Mary¬ 
land. Nor will they soon forget the few who drove back the 
many of the foe at Fredericksburg and at Sharpsburg, who 
won glorious victories at Kernstown and Monocacy, “grappled 
with death in the Wilderness,” and defeated “the finest army 
on the planet” at Chancellorsville. Nay, more, with admira¬ 
tion do they remember, as with the impetus of a might hurri¬ 
cane, the boys in Gray a second time defeated and whirled into 
a disorderly retreat their well equipped and well drilled armies, 
adding new glories to the chaplet of laurel stripped from the 
historic fields of Manasas. Nor do they forget the many 
significant death-pauses when the muster roll was called 


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after their “careless assaults at Spottsylvania,” or suc¬ 
cess in Pennsylvania, at Cold Harbor or New Market, along 
the rippling Rapidan, or on Mayre’s Stony Heights, at Pitts¬ 
burgh, or after the awful slaughter at Petersburg, many a 
brave soldier in Blue answered not, his going to pitch his tent 
“on Fame’s eternal camping ground,’’ was a sad but immortal 
monument of glory to the valor of the Southern soldier. 

FOUR YEARS AGAINST EEAREUG ODDS. 

Four awful years did he fight against fearful odds, 
not only defending his home, but invaded the enemy’s terri¬ 
tory and mingled blood with the north branches of the Po¬ 
tomac. For four years, almost without a navy, did her so- 
called “pirate boats” walk the blue waves as a thing of life, 
wrapping many a graceful merchantman fresh from the pine 
and spruce forests of the North in fiery winding sheets, send¬ 
ing a paralytic stroke to the heart of Northern commerce. 
The story of his bravery, on five hundred stormy fields, 
will ever be told by the mute eloquence of every grave¬ 
yard from Oak Hill to the Rio Grande. And every brook 
and stream or rolling hill or lofty mountain peak, shall each 
to posterity transmit the name of some soldier boy nourished 
there, who, when his country called, angled no more the silv¬ 
ered trout, or chased the timid hare, nor leaped again in childish 
sport from rock to cliff, but went forth, as he understood, to 
protect a nation’s honor by preventing the infringement of 
solemn agreements it had sworn to hold inviolate; to de¬ 
fend the Constitution, and to strike the serpent of centraliza¬ 
tion that he feared would draw its coils more tightly around 
the nation, crushing individual industry and political rights. 

GLORIOUS MEMORIES. 

There is that within each manly breast causing him to write 
on memory’s tablets in loving characters, the deeds 
of noble defenses for the principles and customs of 
his home. The man lacking this is not the man he should 
be. The Irishman would be less Irish were his Celtic lay to 
give place to the English melody, nor will the child of the Alps 
cease loving to hear the dreadful roar as “from peak to peak 
leaps the live thunder.” But it is natural. Rather ask the 
nomadic Arab to leave the protecting shade of his loved palm 
tree, to pitch his tent in the mist and fog of the bleak Siberian 
marshes and shed not a tear, than that a true-hearted South¬ 
erner ceases to hear the sublime but truly awful roll of Fort 

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Donelson’s bombardment; or soon forget the hard-fought but 
glorious battle of Bull Run, where many a true and gallant 
boy from the land of sunshine and of snow, lay down to sleep 
together. What a fratricidal scene! Born of the same parents ; 
children of the same household; alike indomitable; and died 
by each other’s hand. Oh, brothers at the North! joint with 
us today in “gracing their memory with an elegy of words and 
tears.” 

Shall memory soon be overcome in Oblivion’s slow and silent 
stream, losing in sweet forgetfulness the sublime lessons of 
duty, equally exemplified in the trenches at Vicksburg, at 
Corinth, where the Rappahannock’s crimson waters roll, or on 
the twin hills of Gettysburg. Shall the Southern heart cease 
to beat in harmonious accord with the spirit that urged on their 
hary few “through the mazes of a superior generalship” in 
the Virginia Campaigns, or signalling the bravery of fame’s 
eternal Chickamauga ? Will that mother ever forget the darling 
blue-eyed boy, with curly locks and brow so fair, with maiden 
gentleness, who at martial duty’s call was transformed into 
a type of manly beauty and went forth a peace-offering for his 
country? Will not the fair young wife, now grown gray with 
the sorrows of widowhood and the cares of orphanage, make 
a yearly pilgrimage to this shrine, laden with the trophies of 
springtime, to place tokens of remembrance on the soldier's 
grave? Shall we ever cease reading with effect the inscrip¬ 
tions on the ten thousand little doors of eternity, opening on 
every hillside and dale, from the mighty Mississippi to the 
valley of the Shenandoah, or shut our ears to the historic les¬ 
sons taught by those who “tongues are now stringless instru¬ 
ments,” and who will 

“Speak to the ages with 

A golden drift thro’ all the song.” 

SHIhOH CHURCH. 

There are many never-to-be-forgotten scenes in the brilliant 
but bloody panorama of our historic Rembrandt. I would 
have you look as I draw the curtain. Behold a little log house 
on an elevated plateau, embowered by tall oaks and shut in by 
thick brush wood—without doors or windows—as open as 
the hearts of the good Christians who come yearly to worship 
in this rustic sanctuary. This is Shiloh Church. It is the 
Sabbath Day, fresh with the breath of springtime—“the sweet 
rich voice of the morning songster filled the air with melody”— 
all is lovely and Godlike. But hark! The onslaught is terri- 


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ble, avalanche-like two contending armies rush to battle, the 
roar of cannon, the peal of musketry, the wounded charger, 
rushing madly without the master’s guiding hand, the groan of 
the dying, the thick sulphurous smoke, the din and clangor 
of war has hushed the little songster and changed the Sabbath’s 
quiet into a revelry of Pandemonium. Fire and smoke, storm 
of rage, death and the dying, confusion worse confounded be¬ 
fore on earth was never. Albert Sydney Johnston falls, Beau¬ 
regard presses on more vehemently against a like vehement 
foe, till nature drew the veil of night over her fair counte¬ 
nance, that the cooling dews of Heaven may quench the tor¬ 
rent fires of men’s minds inflamed, or the gentle zephyrs be¬ 
fore the morning’s dawn may tense and attune the heart¬ 
strings of humanity. But night only gave preparation for a 
more deadly warfare, which raged continually and more 
fiercely throughout this second day, until Nature again closing 
her eyes on the agonizing scene, shed copious tears which fell 
like a soothing potion to the dying soldier. And remembering 
the departed heroes of the battle of Shiloh, what wonder that 
we bathe memory in liquid Love. 

DESTINY DECREES DEFEAT. 

But the God of Battle seemed to have ordained otherwise 
than that the sons of the Confederacy be crowned with suc¬ 
cess. And if his soul-stirring shouts of victory were echoed 
along the slopes of the Cumberland mountains, or up the sides 
of the joyous Kennesaw, yet the ominous dirge of slowly re¬ 
treating armies was heard after the conflict at Shiloh, at 
Nashville and Bowling Green, Kentucky. 

Defeat was the test-tube in which the nobility of his charac¬ 
ter was tried. As the smelting furnace tests the purity of 
metals, so was the Confederate soldier sorely tried by a great 
disparity of numbers, and a greater desparity in arms and 
munitions of war; by grim, gaunt and ghastly hunger, that 
dimmed the lustre of the eye and paled the rosy cheek of health, 
by the snows powdering their uncovered heads, and the raging 
winds chilling and fevering their ill-clad bodies. Away from 
home and prayerful mother; away from loving wife and chil¬ 
dren needful of paternal care and protection; away as a valun- 
teer fighting for home and country, and not as a hireling, haz¬ 
arding his life for the paltry wages. “His many long forced 
marches in cold and heat and storm, his bravery in the danger 
of battle, his fortitude in bearing his aches and pains and 
agony of wounds, his hopefullness in disaster and defeat, his 
fidelity to principle and trust in God,’ has written his name in 


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the archives of the re-united nation as a beloved son in whom 
she is well pleased. Now the brother from the North, under¬ 
standing the principles and motives that instigated the South 
to action, is glad to grasp her sons by the hand "as worthy the 
name of an American and a brother.” 

THE CONFEDERATE SAILOR. 

Confederate sailors must also be remembered as an import¬ 
ant character of this great drama. Many of our bold and dar¬ 
ing sailors went down to rest in the dark ocean, rocked by its 
rolling billows upon beds of coral and pearl, with only the 
sea to keep their graves green. Without a grave, uncoffined, 
unknelled and resting place unknown, yet we will hold them 
in memory more sacred for their loneliness, and with Jackson, 
the Johnsons and with Lee, we will ever associate the gallant 
Jones, Waddell and Raphael Semmes. 

MR. DAVIS. 

The world has always done honor to the hero. And where the 
“surging billows dash the white sands at Beauvoir,” there lived 
an aged and careworn man to whom the impartial historian 
will accord a place with the great and wise of earth. For many 
years he trod alone the “paths of our defeat,” his motives mis¬ 
understood by those who did not lend an understanding ear; 
patiently bearing the taunts and jeers heaped upon us by those 
who would clothe our defeat in dishonor. Yet his pure and 
spotless character is vindicated in the purity of his long life; 
in his patience, forbearance and charity for the lack of charity 
in others; in the ease, the grace, and native dignity with which 
he “bowed his neck to receive and wear the yoke of disfran¬ 
chisement placed thereon by the hands of the uncharitable.” 
God seemed to have spared him as a modern type of the patient 
Job. And when, a few years before his death, this aged chief¬ 
tain made a pilgrimage through the South to his ancient cap- 
itol, all along the route at every wayside and station came flock¬ 
ing crowds to do him the honor of their presence. The young, 
the old, the rich and poor, the pauper and peasant were there. 
Silvered age and blooming youth, budding manhood and 
womanhood, all joined in a surging crowd, striving to get one 
fleeting glance, or catch a single word falling from the lips 
of the grand old man. The aged, the crippled, the blind and 
empty sleeved veterans came also, and fired by the encourag¬ 
ing presence of their chieftain, greeted him with swelling 
voices, rising heavenward in such a Confederate yell as was 
heard on a hundred battlefields. And we will ever transmit 


with tender and loving care to posterity the name of Jefferson 
Davis as a patrimony to preserve. 

GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. 

Many pen-portraits may be drawn that would be appreciated 
by a Southern heart. I could speak of a life, in the language of 
Montesque, as a “hymn in praise of humanity.”—I could point 
to his superior military genius, to the last sad scene at Appo- 
matox, where he bore himself with a fearless mien, and a dig¬ 
nity becoming the surrender of the hopes of his people; could 
point to the sweet and hearty sympathy as he bade his army 
“an affectionate farewell;” at this faithful devotion to the 
duties of peace, and in this you would see a life that belongs 
not alone to the South, for the life of Robert E. Lee belongs to 
America, in the same sense that Nelson or Wellington is of 
England. 

WHY THE SOUTH WITHDREW FROM THE UNION. 

What, then, of the cause for which we fought ? The South 
withdrew from the Union not with a spirit of rebellion, but 
because she believd her wishes had been disregarded, her 
rights and constitutional guarantees had been trampled under 
the heel of majorities; because it was thought that sectional 
legislation, by those having no similar interest with the people 
of the South, was fast driving wealth from her soft and genial 
clime, her generous and fruitful soil, to the regions north of 
the Potomac, “where sterility was being made to blossom 
as the rose.” This it was that drove us from the house of our 
fathers, and going, we carried the love of law and order, wis¬ 
dom, justice and moderation—the heritage of Patrick Henry 
and Thomas Jefferson. 

OTHER VIEWS FROM DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS. 

Certain it is, there were different views entertained from dif¬ 
ferent standpoints. I trust it may not be out of place to let 
Nathaniel Hawthorne speak of the situation through a pri¬ 
vate letter from him to Mr. Bennoch, an English literati. This 
letter is especially interesting since at the time he lived in that 
section of the Union from whence the South has been most 
Utterly assailed. “We also have gone to war,” he wrote, “and 
we seem to have little, or at least a very misty idea of what 
we are fighting for. It depends upon the speaker; and that, 
again, depends upon the section of the country in which his 
sympathies are enlisted. The Southern man will say, 'We 


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fight for States’ rights, liberty and independence.’ The Middle 
Western man will vow that he fights for the Union; while oar 
Northern and Eastern man will swear that from the beginning 
his only idea was liberty to the blacks and the annihilation of 
slavery.” To which Mr. Bennoch replies: “I cannot feel 
savage* * * with these Southerners. * * * I, and 

millions more,* * * being unable to find out from any 

speech or statement what the principle involved really is. * 
* * The President argues in favor of secession, and permits 

it, if he does not treacherously encourage it; the succeeding 
President ignores it, * * * being unable it. * * * Altogether 
your statesmen, at first, did not believe in war, but by consid¬ 
erable ingenuity excited the South to strike (see Lincoln’s 
message), and then ‘cry havoc and let slip,’ etc.” About the 
same time Mr. Henry Bright also writes Hawthorne, saying: 
“Here in England, among those who have known and loved 
America best, there is but one feeling,—of great sadness and 
regret. We do not know whose is the fault,—whose the crime, 
—but we do feel that we cannot endure this dreadful Civil 
War, and that any separation would be better. * * * The 
South must and will be independent of the Union,—as the 
Union would be independent of this country. * * * You 

cannot compel them to become sister States again. A fra¬ 
ternity brought about by the cry of ‘Fraternity or Death’ will 
not be very cordial. * * * My reason and consciousness 

are clear as to the wrong and uselessness of this most dread¬ 
ful struggle.” 

But all this goes to confirm the saying that you cannot 
safely prophesy results and the effect on the destiny of men. 
Mr. Bright was mistaken as to the result. The South was not 
only brought back by the cry of “Fraternity or Death,” but 
is a “sister State again” and the relation is “very cordial.” 

UNION OF STATES. 

Harkening to the beseeching “come back” of the North, we 
are in the Union again, there to remain always. Evermore to 
cling to her in peace and war, prosperity and adversity, her 
joy will be our joys, her trials and misfortunes our sorrows. 
The gloom of despondency, which for a while prevented the 
rays of hope from cheering our beautiful Southland, has been 
dispelled; the tears are wiped from her weeping eyes, and now 
a loving smile plays upon her rosy cheek. Was there ever 
such a joyous change, wrought, and so magically? Aye! It 
seemed as if the Divine command, “Let there be light,” was sent 
forth on earth again. For out of the darkness of war was 


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erected a magnificent governmental structure, founded on the 
heroic bones gathered from many glorious fields of battle; 
cemented with the blood of Maine and Texas, and the mingling 
of the widows and orphans’ tears; and loyal hearts free from 
guile, making their obeisance before the throne of Infinite 
Justice begging for the common good of a united people. 

And who would have it otherwise? No fair minded man 
but will not say it was all for the better as it terminated. 
Surely there must be a Divinity that shapes the destiny of 
nations as of men. For listen to the roar of the blast furnace 
and steel plants, the shriek of the steam engine, and the roll 
of the busy wheels of commerce as they swell the gladsome 
chorus of the New South’s national praise. 

THE 9TH OE APRIL. 

Man has ever commemorated great achievement; but it is 
of success and public benefaction, and not for disaster and fail¬ 
ure. The famous dramatic representation of the scenes of the 
Passion and Death of Christ, exhibited at regular periods by 
the simple villagers of Ober-Ammergau, in Bavaria, is a ful¬ 
fillment of an ancient vow for their deliverance from the in¬ 
fliction of a plague When a glad world sings joyous psalms 
on Easter Day, the universal heart is full of the love of the 
risen Lord. And on the evening of the 9th of April I listened 
to the address of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, by which we consecrated 
in memory the failure of the Southern Cause, I could but 
know we were reunited. In the “Cradle of the Confederacy” 
was a Confederate audience, on the thirty-seventh anniversary 
of the failure of their cause, listening to the patriotic eloquence 
of an ex-Confederate General, in which he spoke no unkind 
word of the “Other Side,” and with only unbounded hope 
and patriotism for the Union. The thought was there sug¬ 
gested that ere the circle of another thirty-seven years, need 
we be surprised to find, at the North, and at the South, 
a commemoration of the 9th of April as a day of celebration 
for the “ iheroic men in Gray as well as the heroic men in 
Blue,” who layed their hopes, their heroism, and their lives 
on that altar of Liberty—the American Union! 

A UNITED CITIZENSHIP. 

Looking to the “Other Side,” we find the same conditions, 
shown in many ways. Of this, I will let President Roosevelt, 
(thankful for his privilege to have served under “a gallant 
old Confederate leader”) eloquently speak: 

“The wounds left by the Great Civil War,” he says, “in- 


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comparably the greatest war of modern times, have healed; 
and its memories are now priceless heritages of honor alike to 
the North and the South. The devotion, the self-sacrifice, the 
steadfast resolution and lofty daring, the high devotion to 
the right as each man saw it—whether Northerner or South¬ 
erner—these qualties of the men and women of the early sixties 
now shine luminously and brilliantly before our eyes, while 
the mists of anger and hatred that once dimmed them have 
passed away forever.” 

Only a few days ago, General Torrance, the Commander- 
in-Chief of the G. A. R., was the guest of Montgomery, and 
he bears witness, as follows: 

“I believe that the men on both sides were actuated by a 
lofty purpose. They were moved by a sense of duty. * 
Between us there arose some prejudices and some real 
differences, which could net be settled except by recourse to 
the Court of War. * * * to that Court we finally re¬ 

sorted. 

“When the sun broke through the clouds at Appomatox on 
that April morning, it shone upon as brave an army as ever 
trod the earth, it shone upon an army that surrendered with¬ 
out a stain of dishonor. It surrendered to a magnanimous 
leader who refused to take the sword of General Lee. It sur¬ 
rendered to an army that filled the earth with cheers not of 
victory, but of gratitude that the great struggle was over.” 

This reconciliation is shown not only in public utterance, 
but in the kind deeds of private life. Not long since, in this 
city, a Union soldier died in poverty; a Confederate Veteran’s 
Camp took charge of his body, laid it to rest with a decent 
burial, firing the Confederate salute over his grave. This is 
but one of the many illustrations that might be presented 
from either side. 

And on the part of the North every day brings assurance 
in the kindly expression and effort for higher and more liberal 
education at the South, by such men as George Foster Pea¬ 
body, Andrew Carnegie, Robert C. Ogden, Dr. Albert Shaw, 
Dr. Curry, Mr. Villard, and John D. Rockefeller, and many 
others whose names are more than worthy of my honorable 
mention, would time permit, and of whose munificence we are 
now the beneficiary. 

A PRACTICAL REMEMBRANCE). 

The Confederate veteran needs not only a patriotic remem¬ 
brance, but a practical remembrance. The State in the past has 
done what it could in the way of pensions; yet I regret to 


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admit that all the Southern States, save West Virginia, Ala¬ 
bama, Mississippi and South Carolina have established Sol¬ 
diers’ Homes, and the State of Missouri, showing a thoroughly 
just reconciliation, maintains two Soldiers’ Homes, one for the 
disabled Union Soldiers, and for one for his Confederate 
brothers. I trust Alabama, at an early session of its Legisla¬ 
ture, will provide a Soldiers’ Home, or assist in the main¬ 
tenance of such as may be established by the Camps of Con¬ 
federate Veterans. 

soldiers’ homes. 

It is a source of gratification that, if the State and the pat¬ 
riotism of her people, have not provided Soldiers’ Homes, 
the Confederate Veteran, with that same courageous persist¬ 
ence and adherence to duty that placed his name with the Im¬ 
mortals, has undertaken this provision for himself. 

And what is more fitting than that it be located near the 
center of the State! That public-spirited veteran, Col. J. M. 
Falkner, and the camp bearing his name, has located and be¬ 
gan a home at Mountain Creek, near this city; and we now 
trust that the day is not far distant when the needy Confed¬ 
erate Veteran in Alabama will not eke out a scant existence 
on an insufficient pension, or be humiliated by his stay in the 
County Poor House, but that a commodious Soldiers’ Home 
may claim her own. 

IN NATIONAL SOLDIERS’ HOMES. 

Practical beneficence is one of the surest tests of sincerity; 
and a few years ago in Atlanta, when Mr. McKinley stated 
that the time was not far distant when the Federal-Govern¬ 
ment would care alike for the graves of Union and Confed¬ 
erate soldiers, his sentiment was echoed by a nation’s heart. 

It is a sacred sentiment to care for the graves of the gallant 
dead, but a nobler sentiment and more sacred duty to care 
for the needs of the living. The world too often pays debts 
when it is too late; seeks by doing a deferred justice to com¬ 
fort a broken heart, to give color and life to the famished 
corpse. Let us remember that the violet is sweeter to the living 
than a cargo of roses on the bier of the dead. That the much 
needed daily bread and plain apparel timely given is sweeter 
charity than any eloquent funeral oration; and that the kindly 
shelter of a roof, which the old Confederate Soldier could call 
his home by the right of his former service, would be more pro¬ 
tecting than any mausoleum climbing to the skies. 


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SUCH BILL BEFORE CONGRESS. 

I note the introduction in Congress of a bill by Hon. John 
F. Rixey of Virginia, that Soldiers’ Homes supported by the 
Government be established in the South for ex-Confederates, 
and State Homes here receive the same financial assistance as 
at the North and West for Union soldiers. In his splendid ar¬ 
gument on the question, Mr. Rixey says: “We do not suggest 
or ask this as a charity, but as an act of justice, equality and 
right, just as we insisted, when the South re-entered the 
Union, that the Confederate soldier should have the ballot, 
with the right to hold office. In this light, I, as a Southern 
Representative, not only suggest, but demand it.” And from 
the “other side of the House,” the Hon. Washington Gardner 
of Michigan, taking a broad view of the subject, endorsing 
it, concludes his remarks in the following language: 

“The gentleman from Virginia may be criticised now for his 
advocacy of the proposition, but the time will come when 
he will be commended for his sagacity. I speak only for my¬ 
self when I declare that if it is a choice between the two, beauti¬ 
ful as the sentiment is, it were better to feed the hungry and 
shelter the living Confederates than to care for the graves of 
the immortal dead.” 

I regret that opposition to the measure comes from Southern 
members. This is the argument they use: “The Confederate 
soldier, still surviving, though poor, has lost none of his self¬ 
esteem. He risked all and lost all in the great conflict be¬ 
tween the States save his honor. This is dearer to him than the 
laurel wreath that crowns the victor’s brow. He cannot ac¬ 
cept anything in the shape of charity, except it be the offering 
of those who shared his perils and triumphs and defeat in the 
great conflict.” 

In their plenty, these gentlemen (who I fear do not give 
too much of their salary for his support), forget that they 
would measure the neccdy Confederate Soldier with a standard 
by which they do not measure themselves, enjoying the com¬ 
forts of their large salary from a re-united Union. Do not 
erect a false and ideal standard for the needy Confederate 
Veteran alone to live by! Do not compel him to live the life 
of the martyr! Jefferson Davis did this for him that he may 
be spared for the future. 

In the consideration of this question, it should not be over¬ 
looked that the Confederate soldier in the discharge of his duty 
helped to write into the law that which Washington and Jeffer¬ 
son, what Jay and Hamilton, or any other patriot could not put 
into a Constitution; he showed what Clay, Calhoun and Web- 

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a 


ster, what Hill, Yancey and Toombs, and what orators, North 
and South, had not impressed on the minds and hearts of the 
people; he demonstrated that which Marshall, Taney and Chase 
or any other jurist could not show; for the determined 
stand and courageous insistence on the side of the North and 
on the side of the South, gave actual demonstration which car¬ 
ried conviction to every part of this country, that the Union 
could and would withstand disintegration from within, regard¬ 
less of conflicting sectional views; would expel external ag¬ 
gression or interference; and the result taught the world of 
the strength of the American System. These were questions 
above the decisions of patriots, jurists and law-givers; and un¬ 
fortunately could only be settled by the wager of battle. Does 
not Mr. Hay recognize this, when, in his memorial of Presi¬ 
dent McKinley, he uses this language: “There is no event 
since the nation was born which has so proved its solid ca¬ 
pacity for self-government. Both sections share equally in 
that crown of glory. They had held a debate of incomparable 
importance, and had fought it out with equal energy. A con¬ 
clusion had been reached, and it is to the everlasting honor 
of both sides that they each knew when war was over, and 
the hour of lasting peace was struck.” 

build place; monuments. 

It is said that “Upon the plains of Abraham, one single mon¬ 
ument has been erected to commemorate the valor and the 
death of Wolfe, who led the victorious English, and of Mont¬ 
calm, who commanded the vanquished French.” By a special 
in Tuesday’s Advertiser, we are told that New York State 
will erect on Lookout Mountain, a Peace Monument, with a 
towering shaft to be cut from the granite mountains of Ten¬ 
nessee; about its base will be a colonade of smaller shafts, 
and statutes representing color-sergeants, and each holding 
his respective flag; on the base will be engraven a description 
of the battle of Lookout Mountain, written from both Union 
and Confederate standpoints. The people of the great State 
of Tennesseet will thank the Empire State for this thought 
and generosity; the brother at the South thanks the brother at 
the North for coming to understand that each side fought 
bravely in a Civil War, and not in a war of rebellion. It is 
well to speak to coming generations of our great deeds, in 
the cold but eloquent marble shaft; it were better still to teach 
the living the nobler lessons of brotherly love and Christian 
forgiveness by the doing of magnanimous acts of kindness, and 
making the test of sincere sectional reconciliation by practical 


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beneficence. This will need no enduring brass or towering 
marble to speak to the homes, the firesides and the hearts 
of. listening ages, searching for truth. Let, then, the United 
National Soldiers’ Home be erected in the South as the truly 
eloquent Peace Monument. And, in the language of 
Mr. Rixey: ‘‘Will not Congress at this great distance from 
the close of that great struggle rise to this plane, and remove 
the barrier which stands across the path of the private sol¬ 
dier, leading to justice, equality, peace and brotherly love?” 

conclusion. 

Mr. Chairman :—We have come not only to speak to the liv¬ 
ing but hold high converse with the mighty dead. To witness 
deeds of sublime heroism, the sacrifice of self on the shrine of 
principle, to join the 

“Choir invisible 
Of those immortal dead,” 

who, from the distant shore of Fame, gives back in burning 
eloquence words for nobler aspiration and good cheer; while 
at the same time, sweeping the most unfortunate of the unfor¬ 
tunate o'er Reason’s heavenly lyre, that we may learn to submit 
to the arbitration of Him who said “And the greatest of these 
is charity.” Uncharitable men at the North! uncharitable 
men at the South! throw open wide the windows of your 
souls that the flood tide of “Peace on earth and good will 
towards men” may deluge selfish motives and petty strifes, 
that you may partake of the sweets of reconciliation, and drop 
a tear of love and regret upon the grave of the unfortunate 
past. 

Soon the North will gather around the graves of her heroes 
to pay respect to their memories, and thus honoring your hon¬ 
ored dead, we honor you the more, for they also are our coun¬ 
trymen. “But, alas! for both sections we each have sons whose 
ashes repose in the land of the stranger!” Their graves should 
not be neglected by us. With an impartial hand we must place 
thereon symbols of the snow-white robes for which they put 
off the Blue and the Gray, and, changing the battle cry, went 
up with glorious halleluiahs to the God of Battle. 

But here and there over this Union, in each graveyard, are 
one or two newly-made graves—the last home of him who 
“Remembered the Maine,” and volunteered at his country’s 
call. They, too, must not be forgotten—for those graves are 
monuments not only to a union of States, but to a union of 
hearts and sympathies of a people. 


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From the early dawn of Christendom, woman has ever been 
true to the cause she espouses and the faith she reposes. She 
was the faithful of the disciples,at the Agony of Cavalry, and 
the first to seek for the Master in Joseph’s Tomb. And from 
that day till now, in every civilized nationality, she knows 
her great work and lovingly does it. In civil war with her 
industry, her courage and her prayers, she urged the soldier 
to duty; in time of peace, she cherishes the sacred memory 
of his glorious deeds, and sees that the heritage is given to 
posterity. 

On this balmy April day, we join with fair and lovely 
woman, who, with a peculiar divinity, fought bravely in war, 
but reigning gloriously in peace, and who now comes with a 
generous and patriotic heart aglow with Christian love and 
gentleness, and places upon the manly breasts of somebody’s 
darlings wreathes of florescent beauty and purity, bound to¬ 
gether with tender thoughts of absent loved ones made sacred 
bv earnest prayerfulness, and bedewed by the pearly raindrops 
of her soul. 

What a fitting opportunity to quench forever the fire of 
hatred and prejudice, if such a flame still consumes the heart; 
to extend a more cordial hand of friendship to those who once 
cast at our feet the gage of war, and swear over the grave of 
the unfortunate past to array united efifort against the ene¬ 
mies of home and country. 

Now, my countrymen, all our animosities being forgotten, 
we will henceforth deliberate for the common good. The for¬ 
giving hand has been extended and accepted, the North and 
South of 1861 are synthesized into a more perfect union, and 
an Isaiah or an Elijah is not required to tell her future’s 
brightness. Even now I see her seated on the throne of suc¬ 
cess, upon her brow is religion’s crown resplendent with the 
many gems of education, her robe is of spotless truth, bound 
about the waist with National fidelity, encased are her feet 
in slippers that tread the paths of Rectitude; on her right hand 
sits the symbolic Eagle holding in its beak a scroll upon which 
is written: “The peoples’ rights are ever respected,” while 
in her left is the holy wand of Justice extended protectingly 
over a surging multitude—pilgrims of every nationality. This is 
but a negative of our country’s future picture. We are all the 
artists to assist in its development. And may the God of Abra¬ 
ham and may the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob watch 
lovingly over our labors. 


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